Share this:

When TNT’s “Perception” returns for Season 2 on Tuesday (June 25), there will be a new character with a familiar face in the mix. Scott Wolf (“Party of Five”) joins the cast as Donnie Ryan, a U.S. Attorney and Kate Moretti’s (Rachael Leigh Cook) cheating ex-husband who wants a second chance with the woman he scorned.

During a recent visit to the “Perception” set, Wolf and Cook sat down with reporters to discuss the upcoming season and what sort of impact Donnie will have on Kate and Daniel Pierce’s (Eric McCormack) world.

“There’s a zillion reasons why joining this show was going to be amazing. This being number one through nine,” Wolf says, while pointing to Cook. “It’s fun playing characters who are flawed and complicated and not so easy for an audience to figure out. Jumping in, all I know in the beginning is that I’ve done these horrible things and I’m kind of a ‘by any means necessary’ kind of guy. As we’ve gone along, I think my own redemption is revealed to even me little by little.”

In the season premiere, Donnie’s transfer back into Kate’s life is explained as being all about work, but Wolf admits that the truth about his return is made clear sooner rather than later. “It is revealed pretty quickly within the first couple of episodes,” the “V” actor explains. “He says ‘I got transferred back here and it was all about work,’ but he says, ‘I’ve come back because I miss you and I want us to be back together’ and thus begins this epic journey up the mountain.”

Cook adds, “The we start solving crimes together … What’s fun about that is you realize that, once upon a time, they made a really good team professionally and personally. With that pulled away from the, with the personal gone, can they still have that good work relationship?”

Donnie’s reappearance in Kate’s life will create some serious complications, especially when it comes to Daniel. “Donnie showing up complicates things a great deal for Kate especially the more he reveals himself as not the two-dimensional bad guy that she wants to see him as,” she says. “In terms of how it affects her relationship with Daniel, she has to confront her feelings for and about [him] when this little troublemaker [Donnie] says to Daniel, ‘I think this girl’s into you.’ She’s put on the spot and absolutely mortified because she’s really busted and completely shuts him down.”

Wolf gushes about his time on the show, saying, “It is this rare opportunity to get the best of both worlds. You get [a] really interesting technical side which is the murder mystery that is being walked through and all the while there’s this interpersonal stuff sitting on top of it and underneath it and it’s very difficult to pull that off. A lot of shows have tried to pull that off, and this show does it better than any of the ones I’ve known about. So when this became an opportunity, I jumped at it.”